SETH (Scintillation Event Triggering Hodoscope)
A new team of students from Kiel University proposes the instrument SETH and plans to apply it to the next cycle of the BEXUS programme. SETH is the Egyptian God of CHAOS.
SETH, which stands for Scintillation Event Triggering Hodoscope, is a detector developed by a student group from Kiel University. We plan to participate in the BEXUS (Balloon EXperiments for University Students) Cycle 16 in the autumn of 2025. We have been selected for the BX36 mission.
The acronym effectively describes how the device operates. We will utilise two sets of photodiodes and two large BGO scintillation crystals to measure the angle of incidence of galactic cosmic rays as they enter our atmosphere at altitudes exceeding 20 km. We can identify the particle species by detecting the energy loss of a single particle across all five detector stages. By analysing which detectors registered the particle, we can then calculate its angle of incidence. In this context, “triggering” means that only particles losing energy in the BGO crystal are recorded.
We are CHAOS!
CHAOS is a particle telescope to measure Galactic Cosmic Rays developed by a team of students from the Department of Extraterrestrial Physics at Kiel University. To perform these measurements a combination of multiple Solid State Detectors (SSDs) and a Bismuth Germanium Oxide (BGO) scintillator is used to measure the energy deposition of the particles. The use of an additional Cherenkov aerogel scintillator allows to separate between electrons and protons. CHAOS was part of the stratospheric balloon mission BEXUS 35 in fall 2024.
On our website you can find all information regarding SETH, CHAOS and past contributions of Kiel University to the BEXUS programme. Check out our blog to stay updated on all our activities.
The REXUS/BEXUS programme is realised under a bilateral Agency Agreement between the German Aerospace Center (DLR) and the Swedish National Space Agency (SNSA). The Swedish share of the payload has been made available to students from other European countries through a collaboration with the European Space Agency (ESA). EuroLaunch, a cooperation between the Swedish Space Corporation (SSC) and the Mobile Rocket Base (MORABA) of DLR, is responsible for the campaign management and operations of the launch vehicles. Experts from DLR, SSC, ZARM and ESA provide technical support to the student teams throughout the project. REXUS and BEXUS are launched from SSC, Esrange Space Center in northern Sweden.
